Wednesday, 12 February 2014

SOTA in the West Country - February 2014 G/DC-006 Carnmenellis

Most of the day was spent visiting the Eden Project near St Austell. It was raining again but the BBC (accurately) forecast a few hours of dry weather around 4.00pm. After leaving the Eden Project mid-afternoon we once again drove to the top of Hensbarrow Beacon DC-004, to see if it was possible to activate that. No chance - the rain was torrential and the place looked just as horrible as it did the previous day. So we made off back towards Mullion where we were staying, hoping that when we passed the turning for Carnmenellis DC-006, that the rain had stopped.

My GPS Track to DC-006 - can be downloaded from the SOTA Mapping Project by DM1CM

Approaching the summit of DC-006 Carnmenellis - a summit I liked

Previous activators reports said that the route up to DC-006 was difficult. I found the same. With the amount of commercial antenna hardware on the summit and a covered reservoir there has to be a road up there. I imagine this is private and goes up from near to Channel View Farm, however there is nowhere to park roadside near there and the road uphill is private. I found a safe place to park in a layby near the entrance to Phillpots Farm and from there walked back to the bend in the road at SW 690364. A public right of way from there takes you into the access land, which is a short walk through muddy rough gorse and bramble heath land. There is single stranded barbed fence to climb near the trig point.

The useful "cave" which served as my shack on DC-006

Part of the antenna farm in a compound near to the trig point on Carnmenellis

The rain held off and I was able to fasten my pole to the fence. There were some large stones near the trig point and I set up the station under these. This was an excellent pitch - in a cave of sorts - out of the wind and sheltered from the rain if it started. Once again being so far south west, I didn't waste any time trying 2m FM and went straight onto the 40m band. Nick, G4OOE was there waiting for me on 7032 KHz followed by another 15 chasers using Morse. I switched to SSB and made contact with another 11 stations on voice. It was now dusk and time to head back to the car, where I had left my XYL Judy reading her book.

This was our last full day in Cornwall and I knew my objective of activating all seven summits in the DC Region on this trip was not to be. With more rain forecast for the following day it looked likely that two or three summits would need to be visited later in the year if I was to achieve my goal of activating from all English Marilyn summits by the end of 2014.

About Me

Keen outdoor enthusiast enjoying walking, cycling, travelling, music and theatre and operating my amateur radio station indoors since 1982 and on hills and mountains since 2005 using Telegraphy (Morse Code), data and voice communications. I started out as a short wave listener in 1969.

The links below go to summits I have visited and activated for Summits On The Air (SOTA) since 2009. I try to report on every summit I visit, however on some SOTA Tours in mainland Europe the similarities I find on many wooded summits make them difficult to write anything about which is of real interest.

I am a retired Communications Specialist living in North Yorkshire since 1993 and served as a Magistrate in the county from 2005 to 2018.